· stillpoint ·

  Laughter the best medicine When I was growing up the Readers Digest was still popular and I used to enjoy reading the humour section called ‘Laughter, the best medicine’.     Ina and I have just watched the 1998 film Patch Adams based on the true story of a doctor in the US who believes that humour and play are essential to physical and emotional health.   He is described as a physician, comedian, social activist, clown and author, not words you would always see together.   Robin Williams as you can imagine gives the film a lot of life and energy and inspires patients and staff alike.    There comes a point though after a tragic event when he decides to pack it all in, to give up on his vision for a form of holistic medicine that uses humour and play in appropriate ways.    His trust in humanity is broken for a while and he loses his way.   Thankfully he finds it again and realises that light can never be quenched, even if i...

  A Creative and Kind Country. Recently a friend said how they missed all the creativity and interaction there was in the early weeks of the lockdown.   Opera singing from balconies in Italy, Joe Wicks home gym, movies shown on house walls for the neighbourhood, painted pebbles on the roadside, the countless ways parents of young children kept them engaged, Captain Tom’s walk for the NHS etc etc. Our rather reserved and slightly staid British culture was loosened up somewhat and energies and imagination were released in a life giving and life affirming way.   Naturally it is difficult to keep that up over time but I do believe we got a glimpse there of how our lives can be …perhaps a little more colourful, imaginative, open.    We were for a few weeks a creative country. There was also something in the air that made us more aware of others and perhaps a little less guarded even if we had to socially distance. Whether it was walking down the streets and see...

  I have been looking back at some of the thoughts for the day and FB live talks we have done at St James since the start of the lockdown and it has been interesting to see common themes but also differences as time has gone on.      Mostly the tone has been an encouraging and affirming one, but now and again there would be a more challenging piece.   This is one of those. We used to talk about the word unprecedented which we heard a lot of at the start of the lockdown and it still comes up now and again.    Its return is referring to the economic challenges facing us as we come out of the furlough scheme and the inevitable job losses that come with that, unprecedented job losses apparently.    I feel like at the start of the lockdown again, except this time the feeling of dread is for all the people facing months if not years without work.    And then there is the unprecedented level of national debt which will burden our natio...

Last week I was up on a high summit in Skye with wonderful views all around and a spectacular sight of the Cuillin Ridge.   I had actually planned to go up the previous day but it was heavy rain and I would not have seen anything.   The slope was very steep over a long time with only a faint path sometimes and loose scree in places.   I had to really pay attention to where I was putting my feet and also watch my pace on such a sustained slope so I would have energy left at the end . …Most Scottish mountains vary in their slope gradient so you get a break now and again…not on Blevan… relentlessly steep! I mention all this because the evening before I had been listening to a talk about one of my favourite authors, an elderly American farmer who is also one of the US’s most respected authors, Wendell Berry.    One of his themes, learnt from his years working a small farm in a traditional way, is to respect the local conditions, or what he calls the given-ness of ...